OFG gets regulatory approval to pick up Scotiabank’s USVI operations
OFG Bancorp announced it has received final regulatory approval and related licenses from the U.S. Virgin Islands Banking Board required for its subsidiary, Oriental Bank, to close the previously announced acquisition of Scotiabank’s USVI operations.
The approval comes less than a week after the financial institution announced it had received the OK from the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and the Puerto Rico Office of the Commissioner of Financial Institutions to move ahead with the deal in Puerto Rico, as this media outlet reported.
OFG expects to complete the acquisition by Dec. 31, 2019. Once the deal closes, Oriental will make its debut in the USVI.
“Oriental is eager to start serving Scotiabank customers in the U.S. Virgin Islands,” said Ganesh Kumar, senior executive vice president of OFG Bancorp.
“We look forward to providing the highest level of customer engagement with a wide array of products and services,” he said. “Customer deposits will be covered by applicable FDIC insurance. We intend to grow our business in the US Virgin Islands.”
Upon closing and during a transitional period, Oriental will continue using the Scotiabank technology platforms, the bank confirmed.
As a result, USVI customers can interact with the bank, and use branches, as they do currently without any need for change. Over the next few months, USVI customers will be migrated to the Oriental platform, enabling them to access new capabilities, the bank added.
Once the transaction closes, Oriental will have a diversified loan portfolio totaling $7.2 billion, deposits of $7.9 billion, and approximately 500,000 customers. Its mortgage servicing book will expand five-fold to approximately $5 billion, providing critical mass to become a meaningful source of non-interest income.
In addition, Oriental will have 460 ATMs and 11 Interactive Teller Machines, 55 branches, and more than 2,400 employees.
Scotiabank had served the USVI, with branches in St. Thomas and St. Croix since 1963.
